Gloucester Rugby: Nigel Davies pleased to see team return refreshed

NIGEL Davies believes Gloucester have been reinvigorated for a final assault on the Premiership after enjoying a week-long break.

The Cherry and Whites languish ninth in the league table having won just five domestic fixtures this season.

But with a 21-day gap between fixtures, Davies’ battered charges were given a week off.

Now he is confident they will reap the rewards from their recharged batteries when they return to action against Newcastle Falcons next Saturday.

He said: “The boys needed this break, it’s been a tough season, games are reviewed in detail and when you are losing and not performing it’s hard to take. It’s draining both physically and mentally.

“But this has energised the group, they have come back in good spirits and we’ve set ourselves clear targets for the rest of the season and they are achievable.

“We’ve used this week back wisely, we’ve trained well and the boys smashed each other Thursday morning to get to where they need to be for Newcastle.”

With just six league matches left in the season any hopes of entering the top half of the table have faded.

They also take on Exeter Chiefs, Bath, London Wasps, London Irish and Worcester Warriors in their final block of fixtures and Davies insists there is no reason why Gloucester cannot make it a super six.

Davies said: “Newcastle is a good game to come back to but it’s more about us and realising we can achieve what we want.

“You look at our next six league games and while they are very difficult, they are all winnable and similarly with the Amlin Challenge Cup, it’s a big opportunity for us.

“The frustrating thing has been, if you look at Leicester and Harlequins they were very positive in terms of intensity and accuracy but then we fell off the cliff against Northampton – we just didn’t turn up.

“The irony is if we had played anywhere near how we performed in the two previous games we could have got the result

“But I’ve told the boys they can achieve whatever they want, it’s up to them. We have shown we can do it but obviously we have to play well and can’t rely on grinding teams down because we haven’t got that base game.

“But if they believe they can win the next six league games and go out and play like that then they will.”